Without bothering to respond, I open the door for him.
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m just watching a show.” I gesture that he should come inside.
“Cool.” He steps in, but stops in the middle of room.
“You can watch with me if you want.” I wouldn’t mind the company. Chance and I had opted to go our separate ways tonight. I’m sure we’ll be back to normal soon, but it felt weird to hang out without Ty.
“Nah. I mean, maybe, yes. But first—I was hoping we could talk?”
Is this about Nate? Avery? “Sure.”
He walks to one of the armchairs in my room and sits down. I mirror his action, slumping into the other one.
“I’ll get right to the point, Rawls. I’ve sensed some tension between us since you moved to Orlando.”Oh.“Well, really, weboth know it’s been there for a long time, but now, it’s front and center.”
I don’t disagree with anything he’s saying, but I don’t know where he’s headed. “Okay?” My instinct to apologize rises up, but I shut it down and pick silence instead.
You haven’t done anything wrong.
“I feel like it’s on me,” Landon continues, his voice heavy. “Or at least it’s on me to start this conversation.”
On him? This is…unexpected. I nod, keeping quiet.
He locks eyes with me, admiration shining through. “You handled that situation today perfectly. Staying cool-headed, spitting facts, all while standing up for yourself. I’m not sure I would have done the same.” He chuckles lightly.
I let out a breath. His words, his emotions, sinking in.
“Thanks. I didn’t want to fight the guy, but what he said was fucking wrong. In more ways than one.”
“It was,” Landon responds. “You know you’ve earned this, right? No one else understands how hard it was for you to get to this point, except maybe Grace and Connor.”
His words land deeper than I would have expected. Maybe because he sounds so sincere? Maybe because it’s the first time he’s said something like this when it’s not part of a show for the cameras?
He sounds like he’s proud of me.
“I know that most of the time.” I give him a small smile. “I’m working onallof the time.”
He shifts in his chair. “I want to help you get there, but I also realize that my help might not actually be a good thing. Maybe hurting more than helping…”
“Not hurting, not that,” I interrupt. I don’t want him to feel bad about having my back. “It’s just—I’m twenty-one now. In the NFL. I need to be able to stand on my own two feet. And it’s felt…feelslike you haven’t treated me like an adult.”
He twists his mouth. “Yeah, I’m sorry. It took me these last two months of you living here to see that. Maybe I’ve been frozen in time from when you were a teenager.”
I get what he’s saying because he had to step in so much then.
“But watching you today, it really sunk in.Rawley’s got this.”
I blink at those three words.
Hearing them come out ofLandon’smouth? It’s a game changer.
He wears an intent expression. “You’re amanwho can handle situations like that on his own.”
“I can.”
We take a beat to just look at each other, the plane of our relationship resetting in real time. And then he breaks the silence.
